"Comic Book Reviews"

In the way of New comics I've picked up this week, I got four, and ALL DC titles: Batman 662, Detective 828, JLA Classified 33 & Supergirl 14. Of these, the Supergirl was the only title I actually got because I collect it, but since pickin's were slim, I took a chance on some other good reads.

Glad I did, as Detective 828 is definately my personal "Pick of The Week" (pictured above). The story's self-contained, the art's great (Don Kramer & Wayne Faucher), the story is excellant (Paul Dini) and with a striking cover by Simone Bianchi. It involves a tale of an old childhood friend of Bruce Wayne's, who falls off of Wayne's yault and is attacked by sharks. However, as "The Batman", Wayne isn't convinced that's how this person died, and he with the help of the (supposingly reformed) "Riddler" discover what really happened. With a combination of good story and art like this, it could turn me in a regular reader of this title again.

Batman 662 was also pretty decent, with the usual standard passing artwork by Tom Mandrake (who has come a LONG way since his days on "Firestorm"), and a John Ostrander script, along with (what seems to be the fad presently) a mono-chromatic cover, by Gregory Lauren. Dealing with the villian "Grotesk" as well as the death of another character (which ALSO seems to be "the norm" these days in Bat's titles), it was well-worth the read.

JLA Classified 33 is the continuing saga of "The Red King", "Dr. Destiny" & "The Royal Flash Gang", and The King's deception to the JLA (especially "Wonder Woman") and is the typical good hero-slug-fest featuring all of our favorite DC heroes. "Plastic Man" makes his usual little funny remarks, "Batman" is always the oppresive figure, etc. The good usual artwork by Dan Jurgens & Trevor Scott (on finishes), and a readable script by Dan Slott. Kevin Nowlan inks Jurgens' pencils for the cover art which is nice and "stand-out-ish" on the stands.

Supergirl 14 continues her love life with the character "Powerboy", she has a fight with "Batgirl", and...not much else. Oh, Joe Kelly did an "alright" story and Jon Churchill always does nice artwork, but this storyline seems a little much at times. We are introduced to a new version of "Streaky" (Supergirl's cat). A funny line from the story. Powerboy asks, "Streaky? Cute. 'Cause of the alledged 'mean streak'?" To which Supergirl replies, "No...Because she doesn't get the concept of the litter box." (LOL! I KNOW the feeling!!)

No new issue of 52 this time since I'd already picked that one up. According to DC, after the "52" series is finished there will be 4 different books released at the same time as it's final issue which is tied into the whole series (seems like DC likes to release such 4 book lots at one time since they're doing the same thing to introduce a new version of "Dr. Fate").

In the way of older books I got in a copy of Young Love (DC) 69 from Sept., 1968. It's the only DC comic with the designation of "Giant" on the cover outside of the 80 Page series from that time, as well as the only DC Giant romance comic from the 1960's. This leaves me with only one more silver-age DC Giant to acquire to complete my collection; the 1962 "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ANNUAL" (so's...if'n anyone has a reasonably-priced copy of that they wanna sell me, please let me know!)

OTHER "older" comics I've picked up are copies of: Demon Gun #2 (Crusade Publications, 1996). This is a really decent alternative press sorta title with an excellant script by Gary Cohn and good art by Barry Orkin. It deals with a preacher in Texas (which sounds maybe a little familiar) in the mid-1880's. There were three issues pubbed of this and well-looking-into-the-back-issue-binds-for.

And I'm sure that "Johnny Bacardi" will be happy to hear that I found a copy of Thriller #1 (DC, 1983) and only need a #12 to complete me another set in my present collection. (No need for a review as "Johnny" did it much better and you can find that blog site here.)

The New Adventures of Superboy #50, which is an all-"Legion" ish, is another I acquired, with some Giffen art and cover (always a good read from the 1980's).

Firestorm #85 (DC, 1989) is another, with the work of Ostrander, Grindberg and De La Rosa, and is where the character becomes a "fire elemental" for a while in that series.

And finally, Ghost #12 (Dark Horse, 1996) which has a 4 page preview of the "Ghost/Hellboy" mini-series; and it always seemed a good title to read.

I'm outta here.